Help! I’m stuuuuuuuuuckcckkkkkkkkkkkk!

By now, I think most of us know that our bodies and minds aren’t separate; there is a delicious synergy between them.

When we get stuck internally, sometimes we can’t “think” ourselves out of it; we need to work through it with our bodies. As Bryonie and I have been reflecting on Mercury Retrograde and health habits to make life juicier, we’ve examined our own responses to this summer stand-still feeling. We’d love to hear more from you on how you get unstuck—inside and out.

Kate says:

If Mercury Retrograde is prime time for communication mishaps, we can’t get through this series without talking a little bit about our chakras. I was feeling stuck earlier. So stuck that I could feel it, visualize it in different areas of the body, as if I was flooding my engine with so much energy and so many ideas, but spinning my wheels and going nowhere. I took a little time in a movement oriented meditation to focus on different chakras and unstick a bit.

If you know anything about the chakras, you may think of the throat chakra as a communication center. While it is, the chakras do build on each other as well. If we are having communication issues, it’s worth starting with an energy center that’s a bit lower: the solar plexus chakra. Our solar plexus chakras are our source of personal power.

If they are overactive, we can be overbearing and aggressive; if they are closed off or underactive, we can be timid or lacking in healthy boundaries. If we want to be able to speak our minds, we need to start by strengthening this power center near our guts.

There are many different approaches to chakra healing and rebalancing—everything from sound healing, to specific foods to mantra meditation and energy work. One of the things I find most helpful for unsticking these energy centers is to incorporate yoga asanas that activate them into my meditation practice.

A great posture to activate and balance the solar plexus chakra happens to be one of my favorite postures: dhanurasana, or “bow pose.”

While I typically practice the Primary Series, and enjoy the way each posture builds on the last, sometimes it’s helpful to play with different asanas on their own for what they offer us—internally and externally. If I feel like I’m wrestling with saying what I need to say and keep retreating inside myself, sometimes I will take a few minutes in dhanurasana (holding it longer than normal, as one might in a Yin class) to strengthen myself.

A great posture to open and balance the throat chakra should communication issues linger, is matsyasana or fish pose. I love where this falls in the Primary Series, after sarvangasana (shoulder stand). It’s a perfect moment to rest and open ourselves up.

It’s one of my favorite quotes, and I’ll share it again:

“It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.” ~ B.K.S. Iyengar

All of these things—juicing, yoga, soaking in the bath, nourishing ourselves—all of these things help us tap into what is most essential and divine within ourselves, if we let them.

And since we mustn’t neglect the juiciness, this afternoon, I made myself some beet, berry and ginger juice to help unstick my brain and get some writing done.

Beet, Berry, Ginger:

Unmeasured recipe with immeasurable benefits. Or if that’s too lofty, try this: one small beet, about six large strawberries and a cup of raspberries. Around 3 p.m. I was feeling devastatingly tired and like I would never get everything done. I eyed my French press and left it alone. I opened my tea cupboard, but left my Genmaicha for later. And then I decided: juice! It was a wise choice.

****

Bryonie says:

Whoa—I’m not sure where to start.

The last two days have been full of difficult heart-to-heart conversations with people I love—and what I’d really like to do right now is drive into a forest and lie down on amongst the trees and just listen to the sound of quiet.

It’s been heart-wrenching, freeing and challenging to let the words that choke up inside come out not through my fingertips, but through my mouth. To hear my thoughts and feelings shape themselves into actual, audible words, that can be heard, is scary. And part of me wanted to cram them back inside and stuff them down so far that they’d wedge themselves in my hip joints or my lowerback, never to be heard from again.

But I’ve done that already and I know it doesn’t work—because when we force things down that need to come up, it doesn’t make us happy—it makes us very good at hiding shit. Sometimes, we can even trick ourselves into believing that we’re okay on the outside, while somewhere, if we are really being true to ourselves, we know that isn’t the case.

In this act of living and being human, how else can we best honor the people we hold closest to our hearts?

What I’m learning is that by sharing the truth of who I am with the people that love me, I give them the opportunity to love all of me—not just the pretty parts or the parts I think they should love—but all of the parts.

That’s what being human is about, isn’t it? Loving all of the parts of the people we love?

Why would we keep secrets or tell half-truths or fear sharing the whole truth—the light and the dark?

The beauty of everything in this life is that we are all perfect in our imperfections and as much as we are all unique, at the heart we are all the same.

Truth to share: I didn’t juice today (this is a picture from a few days ago); I didn’t yoga today.

I drank jars and jars of water with frozen cherries, raspberries and lemon; I paused  for a moment while writing this, to play my giant heart bowl and let tears roll down my face.

I allowed myself to be right where I am (sometimes, before we unstick ourselves, we need to share a few last goodbyes).

Follow the moment-by-moment details of our juicing adventures on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter with #kandbjuicecleanse.

Have any great juice recipes that make your heart beat quicker? We’d love to hear them!

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 Photo: via Pinterest